Historical data shows that the demand for electricity placed on the power grid is consistently higher during summer months (e.g., July, August, and September in some geographic regions) than other times of the year. Moreover, there is also an increased demand for electricity during certain hours of the day (e.g., usually around midday of a workday when offices and businesses are operating). These times of increased demand are known as, for example, peak power, peak power time, etc.
The increased demand sometimes pushes the power grid to, or beyond, its supply capability. Numerous methods have been implemented to cope with the associated shortage of supply of electricity. A first method is to generate more power during peak times, for example, utilizing additional power plants which operate only during peak times. However, this method is costly in terms of both money and pollution. That is to say, it is expensive to build and operate additional power plants. Moreover, when the additional power plants take the form of diesel-powered or coal-fired generators, an increase in pollution (e.g., greenhouse gases) is produced.
A second method of dealing with supply shortage of electricity is to intentionally implement brownouts and/or rolling blackouts during peak times. In a brownout, the power supplier (e.g., the power grid) reduces the voltage supplied to all customers, often resulting in the dimming of lights (hence the term brownout). Alternatively, in rolling blackouts, the power supplier intentionally cuts off electrical power to a portion of the grid for a specific amount of time, while providing power to the remaining portions of the grid. When the specified time elapses, the grid portion that is currently blacked out has its electricity re-instated and another different portion of the grid is subsequently blacked out. Brownouts and rolling blackouts have the very noticeable drawback of denying electricity to customers, which can be costly to businesses (e.g., especially those that rely on refrigeration) and dangerous for people and pets (e.g., lack of air conditioning has led to heat stroke and even death during some heat waves).
A third method for dealing with excessive demand during peak times is to dissuade customers from using electricity by increasing the price for the electricity during these times. For example, some power providers charge customers as much as 16% more per kilowatt hour during peak times in order to curtail usage during these times. This places customers, particularly large users such as businesses, in a dilemma: use the same amount of electricity, thereby absorbing the full effect of price increases, or electively reduce electricity usage during peak time with the possible disadvantage of being less productive.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.